Merkel-Greece: A new affection in bilateral relations

A lot has changed in Greek-German relations since the time when the greatest source of friction between the two countries was the matter of whether Greece would choose the Eurofighter as the fourth-generation jet for the Hellenic Air Force. In the period of chaos since 2009 - a time of economic collapse, a refugee emergency and a sequence of elections that saw five prime ministers sworn in between late 2011 and early 2015 - the one point of stability in Greek politics was Angela Merkel.

The German chancellor had a key say in all the major decisions affecting Greece: the creation of the rescue mechanism and the inclusion of the International Monetary Fund in the spring of 2010; the country's public debt haircut; the decision not to push Greece out of the eurozone in the summer of 2012; the refusal to offer it further debt relief in 2014, despite the Greek government's success...